Fuhennori
by Kanna37
Summary: Companion piece to Veritas.  A simple misunderstanding led to years of hidden pain for Kagome.  Can one word spoken now by the hanyou of her heart take that pain away?


**Fuhennori**

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

A/N: Fuhennori means eternal truth in Japenese. This is a companion piece to Veritas.

~oOo~

"Inuyasha."

"Ohayo, Kaede," the hanyou greeted, his voice soft and hands folded into his sleeves as he joined the woman at the stone monument she stood before.

"What brings ye here this day?" she asked, not looking at him.

"Truth," he said, his voice barely audible.

The elderly woman shot him a sharp glance, then nodded. "I see. Ye heard Kagome-chan and I speaking," she replied thoughtfully.

"Yeah." He fell silent for a moment, and then asked, "Does she really believe that? After all this time?"

Kaede thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to put it. Then she said, "Sometimes, there are words that are more deadly than any sword. They cause deep wounds that time cannot heal. Such were the words that Kaou spoke. Yes... Kagome-chan believes those words, though she doesn't allow herself to dwell on them often."

Inuyasha's shoulders slumped as he sighed. "Those words he spoke... he deliberately left out one word – a word that would have completely changed their meaning. I wish she had told me about this, or said something... for her to suffer over these words in secret for all these years hurts my heart."

Curious, Kaede asked, "What word is that, Inuyasha?"

He reached out and touched Kikyou's monument just as Kagome had done earlier. "Once. He left out the word 'once'. The woman I _once_ loved most in the world had died."

After a time, Kaede sighed, and shook her head. "Then ye should tell her that, Inuyasha. Only your words can heal the damage done by his."

He met her eyes for a moment. "Yeah..." he said slowly, then turned away, tossing a "Thanks, babaa," over his shoulder.

Kaede looked at her fallen sisters monument and sighed tiredly. "So much pain and confusion that was caused by Onigumo. Even these many years dead, his actions still have impact on us. I can only hope it ends at some point, and his influence finally fades away."

With that, she also turned away and headed for home, leaving a crystalline silence behind as a single leaf spun down towards the ground from somewhere, only to land at the base of Kikyou's monument, forlorn and forgotten.

~oOo~

He watched her caress the bark of the Goshinboku, that air of melancholy surrounding her with potent sadness, and wondered how she'd managed to hide it so well for so long. Those words had obviously pained her greatly to leave such lasting scars.

Stepping into the clearing, he asked, "Why didn't you ever talk to me about it?"

She stiffened, pulling her hand away from the tree, but didn't turn. "You heard me talking to Kaede."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"I see."

"You haven't answered me. Why, Kagome?"

She turned then to look at him, leaning back against the god tree for comfort as she met her husband's gaze. "What is there to say?"

"The fact that you should know better than to listen to the words of an enemy that was simply trying to squeeze as much pain from my soul as he could by _guessing _about the pain he found in me." He stepped closer to her, his eyes burning into hers. "Or maybe about the fact that one missing word can change one reality for another, woman. Take your pick."

She frowned at him, confused. "Nani?"

"Truth. Kaou could tell I was hurting. And yes, I was still hurting over Kikyou's death. I won't deny that. _But_... he couldn't tell that not all my pain was about that. He just took it all to be about Kikyou. I'm a lot more complicated than that, and you should know that by now."

Kagome nodded slowly. "I do. And the missing word...?"

"Once."

Looking taken aback, she muttered, "Once?" questioningly.

"Yes. Once. The woman I _once _loved most in the world. Big difference in the meaning of that statement with that one word added, ne?"

Staring at him, stunned, Kagome's mind staggered as it tried to take in the meaning of what her husband was saying, her heart wanting so badly to believe, but so afraid. Had she been wrong all these years?

"What was that word you told Kaede? V-veri-ttas?" he fumbled out. "You said it means truth in another language. Let me say it in _our_ language, Kagome – fuhennori. There is no more _eternal_ truth than that the woman I love most in the world... is my wife."

Swallowing hard, she stared at the man she'd loved from almost the moment she'd seen him, and then threw herself into his welcoming arms with a sob.

"Fuhennori, Inuyasha," she managed to get out around the constriction in her throat. "I understand."

He wrapped his arms around her and held her as tightly as he could to himself.

"Good," was the last audible word spoken, though there were many inaudible words of truth spoken that day between the two...

No matter what word you used to describe it, in whatever language you spoke it, it was a blessing of the gods that truth will always come out...

Even when it takes years, it will always triumph in the end.

_Fuhennori, Kagome._


End file.
